Muhlenberg Mourns Student Who Killed Herself

April 18, 1991|by KIMBERLY L. JACKSON, The Morning Call

Counselors were at Muhlenberg College's Prosser Hall on Tuesday and yesterday to help students cope with the loss of a dorm resident who jumped to her death from the roof of a 44-story New York hotel early Tuesday.

Muhlenberg freshman Esperanza Guinto, 18, of North Woodmere, N.Y., jumped from atop the Embassy Suites Hotel at 1568 Broadway about 2:30 a.m., police said. She had checked in to a room at the hotel about 10 p.m.

Police said Guinto asked permission to take photographs from the hotel rooftop and was denied. Hotel employees later spotted her on a ledge of the roof and tried to talk her down.

Police said Guinto died on impact in a courtyard behind the hotel. She had a camera with her when she jumped, police said.

Lt. Barbara Sicilia, investigating detective in the Midtown North Precinct, confirmed Guinto's death was a suicide. A note left in Guinto's hotel room did not state a reason for the suicide, but indicated the young woman was depressed, Sicilia said.

The contents of the note were not released.

"We try to keep some kind of dignity in death with that," Sicilia said.

Muhlenberg English Professor Grant Scott had Guinto in his freshman composition class and, as faculty adviser to the college's weekly newspaper, worked with her in her role as a contributor to the paper.

Scott said Guinto asked him about two months ago to write a letter of recommendation for her to Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. She hoped to transfer to the school, but later changed her mind and asked him not to send the letter, Scott said.

"It's just really distressing," Scott said. "I'm really upset because I didn't see it coming."

Scott described Guinto as a student of "quiet intelligence" and somewhat withdrawn.

She was a very clear writer, he said.

"I encouraged her to write for the paper," he said.

Writers for the school paper said Guinto wrote a number of articles and was offered the position of news editor, but did not accept it.

Scott said she had sometimes seemed gloomy, but did not open up much.

"There was a lot inside her that was bottled up," Scott said.

Muhlenberg spokesman John McAndrew said the school learned of Guinto's death Tuesday afternoon, when officials were contacted by a New York Daily News reporter.

Counselors were available to talk with all students, McAndrew said, particularly those who had lived with her in Prosser Hall.

Guinto had not declared a major. Her parents, who live in North Woodmere, are physicians.